Brake pads Akebono or OEM Mercedes

I bought Akebono pads and Centric rotors on Amazon. Best combination in my opinion. Akebono Pro ACT pads are ceramic and last a very long time with hardly any dust and super quiet. Made in the USA too.

Akebono Euro Ceramics all around and they're fantastic.

I did my rear brakes with them and have no complaints. Stops fine, no noise, little brake dust.

Made a few sensible tweaks to this car immediately, at like 300 miles (nothing heavy), one of which was Akebono pads. Third VW I've had these on; they're great -- about as close to zero dust as I think you can get, seem to work a bit better and last a bit longer than the OEM pieces.

The setup i bought is coming with Akebono Im going to try those out.

Mercedes has always had great brakes but until the 190E you didn't have many cheap upgrade options. I have E420 brakes on my 190E Sportline, and my god the stopping power is exceptional.

I know they aren't anything special but I personally like the Akebono Euro-Ceramics. Inexpensive, little to no dust, and no squealing. Great pedal travel/feel but verging on squishy, however the bite is there. My one issue is that if you do any sort of repetitive hard stops they immediately show that they do not like it. For DD stuff, they're great.

My fronts were still new but decided to ditch them for the Akebonos because I was tired of the break dust.

my solution to the braking challenge was replacing both front & rear with Slotted / cross drilled performance rotors from ECS. I used Akebono Pads and i now have excellent brake response...

My stock rear brakes never made any noise. Recently replaced rotors and pads - went with Akebono Euro Ceramic - and now have the same "clunk" you describe. Usually only first thing in the morning when I back out of my driveway and then roll forward and brake.